Information and inspiration for the woman who trains to fight

Boxing is Safe for Women

Surprising though it may seem, studies indicate that amateur style boxing, besides being an excellent form of exercise, is quite a safe contact sport for women to participate in.

in 1998 the National Safety Council put out a report ranking overall sports injuries and 70 other sports appeared on the list ahead of boxing.

Generally speaking, the overall injury rate of competitive boxing is not any higher than most non-combat sports. Orthopedic injuries and hand injuries are rare for competitive female boxers and leg injuries are practically non-existent. Also, amateur boxing athletes are no more likely to suffer from chronic mental impairment than other athletes and incidences of neurologic injury is rare for women's amateur style boxing. Of course for these things to be true is dependent upon adequate conditioning of the athlete and usage of proper protective equipment.

Interestingly, women may be less prone to injury in boxing than men. This is due in part to having a more flexible neck than men. Thus, in boxing women tend to suffer less concussions and other injuries than men. What makes this particularly compelling is the fact that in many other sports females are substantially more vulnerable to injury than their male counterparts.

Boxing in general is very low in rates of fatality with approximately 1.3 occurrences per 100,000 participants (non-gender specific) annually. That is compared to other sports like college football (3), scuba diving (11), sky diving (123) and horse-racing (128). In fact, in 1998 the National Safety Council put out a report ranking overall sports injuries and 70 other sports appeared on the list ahead of boxing.